Nelson,
New Zealand
Sunday, May 7, 2006
After a hard night's drinking and a long but beautiful drive we fell short of our destination. Instead of going to the Abel Tasman National Park , our hung over bodies told us to spend the night in the nearby city of Nelson. When we arrived it was pretty quiet considering it was a Saturday night. After being badly burnt on our last dorm in Queenstown we decided it would be worthwhile having a squint at the room before coughing up our hard earned money. The first two were grim but maybe we were being ultra harsh. It wasn't long before we got fed up and decided that if the next one was reasonably clean then we would take it. That's exactly what we did. The room seemed fine so after putting our bags down we headed back downstairs to square them up with the cash. The first thing that came to our attention was that the receptionist/hotel manager was knocking back a can of beer. Ah well its a Saturday night we thought, but he lowered the can to reveal his facial tattoos and glazed eyes we weren't sure. After 4 totally unrelated prices we took the lowest one and made for the kitchen to cook up a storm. We were met in the kitchen by 4 non backpacker/homeless type men. All had a beer in their hands and had that same glazed look as the guy at reception. Two of them played with melted ice-cream, pouring it from one container to another, one watched a pie cook in the microwave and the fourth chopped a salami style log of dog food on the counter. After dicing it carefully he put it in a container and headed off! We decided not to cook after all and had a take away instead. It turned out that we were staying in a "hostel" hostel! That is; a hostel that caters for the homeless, people with drug and alcohol problems and those who have spent some time at her majesty's pleasure and have recently been released.
Not that we minded too much it just wasn't what we were expecting. That night we lay awake listening closely for the sound of dogs as our minds wondered where the guy with the dog food actually went?
